Director’s Notes
We’ve adapted She Stoops to Conquer not only to streamline
Mr. Goldsmith’s work, but to replicate a dramatic event
worthy of the Georgian era. We have added a prologue, an interval-entertainment,
an epilogue, and, as was custom for a comedy of the day, a dance
at curtain call.

Plays of this period have a self awareness inherent to the
acting style and many of the characters are recognizable types.
We are conscious of being in a dramatic setting and no attempt
is made to hide it, lending itself to a Moulin Rouge sort of
theatricality that the company has embraced.

She Stoops, while charming and somewhat innocent, carries an
interesting almost cynical edge. All the characters practice
a certain level of deception for gain. With the exception of
Mrs. Hardcastle, they forgo any form of retribution. Like many
plays of the Georgian period, love and money are predominant
and the lack or burden of it dominates the character’s
lives.

I found an astounding similarity to the 1980’s ‘ME’
generation and the late 1700’s. Reaganomics created an
era of people concerned with jean brand placement, dancing to
the strains of Material Girl and the unabashed pursuit of wealth
over love. Even rock stars of the 80’s borrowed the eighteenth
century costume silhouette. Madonna made Vogue a verb and Prince
wrongly predicted the outcome of 1999.

Goldsmith’s work still manages to delight and satirize
notions of class and amore. We hope you enjoy this funny, sexy,
romantic romp into the not so distant past.

Steven Young
Director and Adapter

DENTON — The Texas Woman’s University drama program
puts a new twist on a classic tale with its production of She Stoops
to Conquer.

First produced in London in 1773, the Oliver Goldsmith comedy remains
one of the few 18th century plays to regularly be performed today.
Rather than take a classic approach to the tale of misunderstandings,
mistaken identities and secret love affairs, TWU’s production,
directed by drama assistant professor Steven Young, marries elements
from the 1770s and the 1980s.

To emphasize the play’s theme of love and money and how the
two ideas were inextricably linked in 18th century London, the TWU
production will pull inspiration from the era of Reaganomics —
a decade that, to some, celebrated the rise of social and economic
status and re-examined what it meant to “marry well.”
The costumes will blend classic 18th century silhouettes with modern-day
fabrics and details reminiscent of the 1980s. The music also will
blend the two eras.